How to Make Your Backyard Playground Swing Set Safer

Now that spring is here, kids will be spending a lot more time outdoors, riding bikes, kicking the ball around, and if they have access to one, enjoying the backyard playground. They know what’s good for them.

Over the years, numerous studies have shown playgrounds to be essential not only to physical strength, but to mental well-being as well. Playgrounds help children develop important social, emotional and cognitive skills, and can provide kids with an opportunity to imagine, create, discover, and reason, whether playing independently or as part of a play group.

When they make the decision to get their kids a playset of their own, parents put a lot of emphasis on the kinds of activities it should have -- swings, a slide, climbing walls, etc. One thing that is often overlooked is the playground surface and how protective it is.

Just about all public playgrounds have some type of shock-absorbing protective surfacing under the playground equipment. But according to a research study conducted by the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), only 9 percent of the home backyard playgrounds have any kind of protective surface; and of the approximately 50,000 injuries per year that can be associated with children playing on their home backyard playground equipment, about 70 percent are due to falls to the ground.

The CPSC statistics show that most backyard playground equipment is installed over either grass or dirt and the existing ground surface is left for the kids to play on as is. The problem is that neither of these surfaces offer much protection.

But Detailed Play Systems, a leading manufacturer of backyard playground equipment, now offers a solution. EverMulch is a soft play safety surfacing product that is made of recycled rubber tires. Unlike wood mulches, which need constant replenishment year after year to remain safe, one application of rubber mulch surfacing will last for years.

When installed at 4-inch depth, EverMulch meets or exceeds all Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards for 8-foot fall height, offering children an extra margin of safety when they play. The manufacturer utilizes advanced rubber granulation, screening, and anti-microbial treatment processes that produce a shock absorbing, smaller-sized, and cleaner rubber nugget that comes in four vibrant colors -- California Redwood, Boston Brown, Grass Green and Caribbean Blue.

For more information or to place an order, log on to www.detailedplay.com or call (800) 398-7565